Pity poor Marilyn Monroe: She had a mishap last week during the snowstorm and broke her famous legs.

Her recovery is expected to take months and, in the interim, she will no longer be able to greet motorists passing by on Trent Road.

“When I drove up after the storm, I was heartbroken,” said Ruthie Tyson, manager of The Ziegler Hotel Suites where Monroe stood. “I thought somebody had murdered her.”

All that is left on the concrete slab in front of the hotel where Monroe stood striking her iconic pose from the subway grate scene in the movie “The Seven Year Itch” are her red high heels.

The fiberglass Monroe has been a New Bern landmark for about six years and is a point of reference to The Ziegler Hotel Suites at 1914 Trent Blvd., Ruthie Tyson said.

“A lot of people through the years have come up and asked if they could take a picture of her, a lot of out-of-towners,” she said. “They also take pictures of the Blues Brothers car on the side of the building, but mostly they take them of Marilyn. At the beginning, I was afraid people might think it was a little cheesy. But I think everybody loves it.”

Ruthie Tyson said it wasn’t the same without Monroe standing on the lawn of the hotel.

“We miss her,” she said. “It’s not the same to say ‘Here is where Marilyn used to be.’ Hopefully she will have some surgery and be back sometime in the spring.”

Ruthie Tyson’s brother Steve Tyson, who owns The Ziegler Suites Hotel along with his wife, Jana, said Monroe’s accident occurred during the big snowstorm Feb. 11.

“Somebody called me and told me,” Steve Tyson said. “I thought somebody might have pushed it over and broke it. But there was a foot of snow around it and no footprints.”

Steve Tyson said it just got so cold during the storm and there were cracks in Monroe’s feet. That, combined with the heavy snow, led to her fall.

“We’ve had a lot of people call up and say ‘What in the world is going on? Where is Marilyn?’” he said.

When the Tysons bought the Ziegler Suites Hotel, they decided to give the suites themes. Tyson said he had a lot of memorabilia stored from the 1940s through the 1960s, so the rooms became time capsules from his and his father’s hero Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

Tyson said he and his wife were traveling on U.S. 17 to Myrtle Beach, S.C., six or seven years ago and saw the Monroe statue outside an antique shop.

“Sometimes my wife and me think alike,” Steve Tyson said. “We looked at each other and we had just finished working on the Marilyn room. We both said we’ve got to have that. Why did we have to have it? We didn’t know.”

Page 2 of 2 - Tyson said he wanted to put the Monroe statue in front of the Marilyn theme room, but his wife wanted it in front of the hotel, so that is where it ended up.

“It’s been a good landmark,” he said, adding Marilyn will return with her iconic pose. “You can plan on it.”

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at eddie.fitzgerald@newbernsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @staffwriter3.